In Sickness
by qu33n b33
Summary: Aelita and Jeremy get a bit of a stomach bug. Sissi is there to help. (I will spell Jeremy how I want Fight Me)


My friends are sick so here's a fic

* * *

It wasn't often that Jeremy and Aelita were sick. Well, Jeremy wouldn't admit it most of the time and pressed on anyways, but he still wasn't out much. Aelita on the other hand seemed to have a super human immune system. To hear that both of them were out sick meant they were, in fact, very sick.

Naturally, Sissi felt it was her duty to step in and help.

Ulrich gave her a half-hearted glare as she stepped into the room. Despite their group growing closer over the years, there was still that rift between her and him that made her heart hurt every time she thought about it. He was nicer to her, but it was almost like he felt he _had_ to be, and not that he wanted to be. In a way that was worse than him hating her.

Yumi and Odd smiled and greeted her kindly, and she focused on them instead. While Odd's persistent flirting often got on her nerves, she couldn't deny she loved the attention.

Yumi, on the other hand, was someone that when she smiled at you, you just felt this awe as you wondered if you deserved it.

"Stomach bug." Yumi shrugged as she ran her hand through Aelita's hair. Over the past two weeks most of their school had come down with a pretty bad bug, the rest of the gang included. Aelita and Jeremy seemed to be the last of them to get it, and seemed to even have gotten it worse.

"It's not that bad." Jeremy frowned and squinted at them. His head was sideways on the pillow and his glasses were in his hand. Aelita, who laid down in the opposite direction, snickered from the foot of the bed.

"It sucks."

Sissi scoffed while the rest of the group laughed and grinned at their pink haired friend. She opened her bag and revealed various things to help with stomach bugs. Water bottles, crackers, cans of ginger ale, and peppermints.

Yumi shook her head. "You always have the stuff we need in there."

Sissi blushed as she handed the bag over to Odd, who immediately stole a soda from it. "Well, since I'm here during the holidays I usually see Jim around a lot. He's taught me how to be prepared." It was a thinly veiled secret that Sissi admired Jim on some level. He was always helping the kids and putting in a lot of hard work around the school. When Sissi realized she needed to better her behavior to really make friends, she found that Jim was more or less the kind of person she wanted to be.

Odd was about to say something that probable would have gotten something thrown at him when Ulrich held up a hand and stared at his phone.

"Classes are about to start again."

Sissi waved the others off when they gave Jeremy and Aelita worried looks. "I got it. I can talk my way out of detention a lot better than you guys can."

"You should totally try to talk us out of detention some time, though." Odd smiled cheekily as he and Ulrich jogged out the door. He winked and Sissi rolled her eyes, though she made a mental note to try and do so some time.

"We'll be back right after class. And I'm sure they're capable of surviving on their own if it comes down to it." Yumi was more practical, and offered a fist for Sissi to tap with her own as she left. "Just make sure Jeremy doesn't puke on his laptop."

"Got it." Sissi nodded and turned to the sick teens on the bed as Yumi closed the door. "You two... Look awful."

Jeremy scoffed but quickly regretted it and groaned. "It's not... That bad."

Aelita openly admitted it was horrible, and sat up slightly to lean on the wall. She winced slightly and held her stomach, but sent Sissi a soft smile. "Have you even gotten this yet? We aren't going to make you sick, are we?"

Even Jeremy looked up at that, and furrowed his eyebrows. "That's a good point."

"Oh, don't worry. I'm going to get it no matter what, I've accepted that. Might as well be doing this." Sissi shook her head. Most of the school had gotten it, and the ones that hadn't either had accepted they would or hoped they would (an excused two day absence was too much to pass up, even sick).

"If you're sure." Aelita tilted her head and smiled still. Sissi saw the worry in her eyes and quickly looked to Jeremy instead.

"So, four-eyes, you gonna try and make a run for it at some point?" She eased herself down into the office chair at the desk.

"Probably." Jeremy said, deadpan. He hated the attention and the restriction that came with being sick. He would leave the comfort of his own room if it meant getting away from it all.

"Just don't do it while I'm here. I can't run in these sandals."

"We've seen you climb a mountain in heels." Aelita pointed out, "If needed, you could run in those."

Sissi blushed slightly, but she couldn't deny it. "Okay, fine. I just don't want to hunt your sick boyfriend down. I would much rather watch Odd do it."

When the other two laughed (softly, so as not to hurt themselves) Sissi smiled. She was so grateful that after all that time, she managed to be included in their friend group. It had taken a while, sure, and things were rocky sometimes. But the group was close, like a small family. Even if she was on the outer edge, she knew how lucky she was to be there with them.

Even in moments like this, when Jeremy suddenly stuffed his head in the trash bin.

"Oh, gross!"

But despite the grossness of the situation, she was still here with a pack of wet wipes (thank you, Jim) and a bottle of water. And when Aelita followed she had a bowl of frozen grapes and a can of ginger ale. She was prepared in every sense of the word, and she was more than willing to help her friends when they needed it. When Jeremy cried boredom she brought out a laptop and several DVDs. When Aelita got a chill she had a spare blanket.

And, long story short, that was how she found herself sandwiched between the two geniuses with a laptop on her lap when Odd opened the door.

Several blackmail photos later, Sissi still found she was in a pretty good mood. Her friends had joked and laughed, and Ulrich had even bought her her favorite kind of soda. As she watched the group around her, she couldn't help but feel at home.

It took two days for her to get the bug.

(Aelita brought the soda. Jeremy brought the laptop.)


End file.
